This Week's Post Co-Written by Food

And the cycle continues. Sun goes up, sun goes down. Tide comes in, tide goes out. And so it is, another week in the world's Fujioka-i-est city, another blog post. You can't explain that.

In the foil is yakispaghetti (grilled spaghetti), because Japan.

I'm usually one to scoff or roll my eyes when the start of a meal is impeded by someone with a camera, all too eager to take pictures of what I'd really rather be eating at that moment. But NO. Not this week. Lots of food pics for you. I've had too many amazing meals this past week to let them go...undigested.

This place was pretty much food heaven.
Be sure to check out all my pics via the link
over on the right sidebar. I have a lot of great
food pics from this place.

Tabehodai. Just take a minute to appreciate that word. Tabe...hodai. It means all you can eat. Last week I went to a sushi and yakiniku (grilled meat) tabehodai restaurant, accurately named STAMINA-Tarou. And it was magical. They had sushi and meat, yes, but they also had so much more: a fried foods bar, a full salad bar, a sweets and dessert bar, a full ice cream freezer, melon and orange Icee machines, a grill to make your own crepes, and even a freaking cotton candy machine. For the yakiniku, there was a whole refrigerated section complete with dozens of different thinly sliced cuts of meat. I loaded up on the essentials, headed back to my table, and cooked the uncooked items right there at a grill built into the table. That was probably the best meal I've had since returning to Japan. And it was just $20 a person! This place could prove to be my undoing.

This was, like, a shichishoku donburi
by the time they were done making it.

Let's move on to meal two. This one was at a local izakaya (what does that translate to--like pub?). It's kind of a place for drinks but they serve good food too. It was late and I was hungry, so I didn't put too much thought into my choice and ordered a sanshoku (three item) donburi, which is like a rice bowl with three kinds of fish in it. The person taking my order told me that they were out of one of the three kinds of fish. Whatever, I thought. Nishoku don, then (two items). What I did not expect was for the cook to go nuts with my food and make one of the most elaborate donburi I've seen, (I guess as an apology for not having one of the ingredients, or maybe because I'm just cool and foreign?) I felt really bad; it was delicious, but I ended up leaving about half uneaten just because it was so filling. Sorry, super nice izakaya lady.

It was so nostalgic being back in their house again.
I already miss them all again.

My host sister displaying the double
yolks of an egg she cracked open. 

Meal three I actually ate all the way over in Saitama with my old host family. I got in contact with them a while after coming back here to Japan and had been trying to find a time to meet up for a bit. We eventually settled on that weekend, and they actually let me stay back at their place again for a night, so I was there Saturday and Sunday. My host mom prepared a delicious sukiyaki meal for everyone (like meat, veggies, noodles, and all kinds of good stuff all cooked together in a broth). It was great to see everyone there again. I got to meet their newest host student as well, who's from France and just a few years younger than me. He's their 15th host student, I believe. I was number 10. Like I said, I stayed the night there and returned the next day after attending my host brother's soccer game, visiting the Tokyo Skytree landmark with my host dad and sister, and getting totally lost on the trains. I'm so happy I was able to stay in contact with them.

The 100% Full Power Final Form of my okonomiyaki.

Fourth and last notable meal for now was at an okonomiyaki restaurant. I...don't even know how to attempt to explain okonomiyaki, so just look at my pictures. It's like a disc-shaped grilled veggie/meat/egg/sauce/noodle thing. A lot of people call it a kind of pancake, but it's really really not. I ordered Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki because I had had that before when I was visiting Hiroshima and it was delicious. Just my luck, it also turned out to be the most difficult to make. So while most of the friends I was with just had to mix and egg in with a bowl of stuff, then throw it on a grill, I had to: 1. lay down a circular layer of batter on the grill, 2. start the noodles cooking as a separate disc, 3. throw the veggies and meat on the first one, 3. beat some eggs and start a third, eggy disc, 4. flip and cook all that stuff, and 5. assemble it all into a marvelous food stack. It took a few attempts and a while to make, but it actually turned out pretty great. I was surprised.

Work at my school has kind of started unofficially now, but I'll save that for next week's post when I can include some more details. For now, it's late and I should sleep. Thanks again for keeping up with me, and again, if you like my posts here, spread 'em around like okonomiyaki batter and like and share them online. I always love getting feedback in the form of comments too.

Until next time!